You know how papers exaggerate things, Pollykins, I would not be so easily offended with my relations," she protested.
"No, but you used to be such an intimate friend of Anthony Graham"s. Do you know I look upon him as one of your good works, Betty? I wonder if he will condescend to come to the cabin to see us, now he is such a busy and distinguished person. Is he as much a friend of yours now as he used to be?"
Unexpectedly Betty"s thread broke, so that she was forced to make another knot before replying.
"Friend of mine? No, yes; well, that is we are friendly, of course, only Anthony has grown so fond of Meg Everett lately that he has not much time for any one else. But please don"t speak of anything I ever did for him, Polly. I beg it of you as a special favor. In the first place it was so ridiculously little and in the second I think it pretty hard on Anthony to have an unfortunate accident like that raked up against him now that he has accomplished so much."
"Oh, all right," Polly returned, thoughtfully digging into the earth with the toe of her pretty kid slipper.
"Good heavens, speaking of angels or the other thing!" she exclaimed, a moment later, "I do declare if that does not look like Anthony Graham coming directly toward us this instant. Do go and speak to him first, dear, while I manage to scramble out of this hammock."
Ten minutes later Anthony was occupying the chair lately vacated by Betty, while Polly was once more in a reclining position. Knowing that she was still regarded as a semi-invalid, Anthony had insisted that she must not disturb herself on his account. He had explained that the reason for his call was to find out how she was feeling. So, soon after this statement, Betty had left the two of them together, giving as an excuse the fact that as she had invited Anthony to stay with them to tea she must go to the cabin to help get things ready.
After Betty"s disappearance Polly did not find her companion particularly interesting. He scarcely said half a dozen words but sat staring moodily up toward the dark branches of the enshadowing pine trees. This at least afforded Polly a fine opportunity for studying the young man"s face.
"You have improved a lot, Anthony," she said finally. "Oh, I beg your pardon, I am afraid I was thinking out loud."
Her visitor smiled. "Well, so long as your thoughts are complimentary I am sure I don"t mind," he returned. "Keep it up, will you?"
The girl nodded. "There is nothing I should like better. You know it is odd, but the Princess and I were talking about you just when you appeared. I must say I am amazed at your prominence, Anthony. I never dreamed you would ever amount to so much. It was funny, but Betty used always to have faith in you. I often wondered why."
This time her companion did not smile. "I wish to heaven then that she had faith in me now, or if not faith at least a little of her old liking," he answered almost bitterly. "For the last year, for some reason or other, Miss Betty has seemed to dislike me. She has avoided me at every possible opportunity. And I have never been able to find out whether I had offended her or if she had merely grown weary of my friendship. I have been so troubled by it that I have made a confidant of Miss Everett and asked her to help me if she could. I thought perhaps if Betty-Miss Betty, I mean-could see that Meg Everett liked me and was willing to be my intimate friend, that possibly she might forgive me in time. But it has all been of no use, she has simply grown colder and colder. And I fear I only weary Miss Everett in talking of Miss Betty so much of the time. She recently told me that I did."
Polly"s lips trembled and her shoulders shook. What a perfectly absurd creature a male person was at all times and particularly when under the influence of love!
The next moment the girl"s face had strangely sobered.
"You are not worthy to tie her shoe-string, you know, Anthony; but then I never have seen any one whom I have thought worthy of her. Most certainly neither Esther nor I approved of the n.o.bility as represented by young Count Von Reuter."
Aloud Polly continued this interesting debate with herself, apparently not concerned with whether or not her companion understood her.
"Certainly I am unworthy to tie any one"s shoe-string," the young man murmured finally, "but would you mind confiding in me just whose shoe-string you mean?"
From under her dark lashes half resentfully and half sympathetically the girl surveyed the speaker. "You have a sense of humor, Anthony, and that is something to your credit," she remarked judicially. "Well, much as I really hate to say it, I might as well tell you that I don"t think the Princess dislikes you intensely, provided you tell her just why you have been so intimate with Meg for these past months. No, I have nothing more to say. Only I am going down to the lake for half an hour to join Mollie and Billy Webster and if you wait here you may have a chance of speaking to Betty alone when she comes to invite us in to tea."
Then quietly Polly O"Neill strolled away with every appearance of calmness, although she was really feeling greatly perturbed and distressed. Certainly something must have worked a reformation in her character, for although she positively hated the idea of Betty Ashton"s marrying, had she not just thrust her deliberately into the arms of her fate. Yet, of course, her feeling was a purely selfish one, since she had no real fault to find with Anthony. So if Betty loved him, he must have his chance.
Then with a smile and a sigh Polly once more shrugged her shoulders, which is the Irish method of acknowledging that fate is too strong for the strongest of us. She reached the edge of the lake and madly signaled to Mollie and Billy to allow her to enter their boat. They were at no great distance off and yet were extremely slow in approaching the sh.o.r.e.
Evidently they seemed to feel no enthusiasm for the newcomer"s society at the present moment.
"I thought you were asleep, Polly," Mollie finally murmured in a reproachful tone, while Billy Webster eyed his small canoe rather doubtfully.
"She won"t carry a very heavy load, Miss Polly," he remarked, drawing alongside. Polly calmly climbed into the skiff, taking her seat in the stern.
"I can"t sleep all the time, sister of mine," she protested, once she was comfortably established, "much as I should like to accommodate my family and friends by the relief from my society. And as for my being too heavy for your canoe, Billy Webster, I don"t weigh nearly so much as Mollie. So if you think both of us too heavy, she might as well get out and give me a chance. You have been around this lake with her at least a dozen times already this afternoon. Besides, I really have to be allowed to remain somewhere."
Plainly Mollie"s withdrawal from the scene had no place in Billy"s calculations, for without further argument he moved out toward the middle of the pond.
CHAPTER XX-Two Engagements
Ten minutes more must have pa.s.sed before Betty decided to return to her friends. Yet during her short walk to the pine grove she was still oddly shy and nervous and in a mood wholly dissatisfied with herself. Why in the world did she so often behave coldly to Anthony Graham and with such an appearance of complete unfriendliness? There was nothing further from her own desire, for certainly he had an entire right to have transferred his affection to Meg! To show either anger or pique was small and unwomanly!
Never had there been definite understanding between Anthony and herself.
Indeed she had always refused even to listen to any serious expression of his affection for her. Long ago there had been a single evening after her return from Germany, when together they had watched the moon go down behind Sunrise Hill, an evening which she had not been able to forget.
Yet she had only herself to blame for the weakness, since if Anthony had forgotten, no girl should cherish such a memory alone.
Now here was an opportunity for proving both her courage and pride. With the thought of her old t.i.tle of Princess, Betty"s cheeks had flamed. How very far she had always been from living up to its real meaning. Yet she must hurry on and cease this absurd and selfish fashion of thinking of herself. A cloud had come swiftly up out of the east and in a few moments there would be a sudden July downpour. Often a brief storm of wind and rain closed an unusually warm day in the New Hampshire hills.
Under no circ.u.mstances must Polly suffer. Only a week before had Mrs.
Wharton been persuaded to leave Polly in their charge when she and Mollie had both promised to take every possible care of her.
Suddenly Betty began running so that she arrived quite breathless at her destination. Her face was flushed, and from under the blue ribbon her hair had escaped and was curling in red-brown tendrils over her white forehead. Then at the entrance to the group of pines, before she has even become aware of Polly"s disappearance, Anthony Graham had unexpectedly caught hold of both her hands.
"Betty, you must listen to me," he demanded. "No, I can"t let you go until I have spoken, for if I do you will find some reason for escaping me altogether as you have been doing these many months. You must know I love you and that I have cared for no one else since the hour of our first meeting. Always I have thought of you, always worked to be in some small way worthy even of daring to say I love you. Yet something has come between us during this past year and it is only fair that you should tell me what it is. I do not expect you to love me, Betty, but once you were my friend and I could at least tell you my hopes and fears. Is it that you are engaged to some one else and take this way of letting me know?"
Still Anthony kept close hold of the girl"s hands, and now after her first effort she made no further attempt to draw herself away. His eyes were fixed upon hers with an expression that there was no mistaking, yet something in the firm and resolute lines about his mouth revealed the will responsible for Anthony Graham"s success and power. Quietly he now drew his companion closer beneath the shelter of the trees, for the first drops of rain were beginning to fall.
"But I am still your friend, Anthony. You are mistaken in thinking that anything has come between us. As for my being engaged to some one else that is quite untrue. I only thought that you and Meg were so intimate that you no longer needed me." For the first time Betty"s voice faltered.
Anthony was saying in a tone she should never forget even among the thousands of incidents in their crowded lives, "I shall always need and want you, Betty, to the last instant of created time." Then he brought both her hands up to his lips and kissed them. "Meg was only enduring my friendship so that I might have some one with whom I could talk about you."
Suddenly Anthony let go Betty"s hands and stepped back a few paces away from her. His face had lost the radiant look of a brief moment before.
"Betty, a little while ago you told me that you were still my friend and that no one had come between us, and it made me very happy. But I tell you honestly that I do not think I can be happy with such an answer for long. Two years ago, when you and I together watched the moon over Sunrise Hill, I dared not then say more than I did, I had not enough to offer you. But now things are different and it isn"t your friendship I want! Ten thousand times, no! It is your love! Do you think, Betty, that you can ever learn to love me?"
Now Betty"s face was white and her gray eyes were like deep wells of light.
"Learn to love you, Anthony? Why I am not a school girl any longer and I learned that lesson years and years ago."
When the storm finally broke and the thunder crashed between the heavy deluges of rain neither Anthony nor Betty cared to make for the nearby shelter of Sunrise cabin. Instead they stood close together laughing up at the sky and at the lovely rain-swept world. Once Betty did remember to inquire for the vanished Polly, but Anthony a.s.sured her that Polly had joined Mollie and Billy half an hour before and that they would of course take the best possible care of her.
Nevertheless at this instant Polly O"Neill was actually floundering desperately about in the waters of Sunrise Lake while trying to make her way to the side of their overturned skiff. Billy Webster, with his arm about Mollie, was swimming with her safely toward sh.o.r.e.
"Don"t be frightened, it is all right, dear. I"ll look after Polly in a moment," he whispered encouragingly.
Returning a few moments later Billy discovered his other companion, a very damp and discomfited mermaid, seated somewhat perilously upon the bottom of their wrecked craft.
"I never knew such behavior in my life, Billy Webster," she began angrily, as soon as she was able to get her wet hair out of her mouth.
"The idea of your going all the way into sh.o.r.e with Mollie and leaving me to drown. You might at least have seen that I got safe hold of your old boat first."
"Yes, I know; I am sorry," Billy replied, resting one hand on the side of his skiff and so bringing his head up out of the water in order to speak more distinctly. "But you see, Polly, I knew you could swim and Mollie is so easily frightened and it all came so suddenly, the boat"s overturning with that heavy gust of wind. To tell you the truth, I didn"t even remember you were aboard until Mollie began asking for you.
I wonder if you would mind helping me get this skiff right side up. It would be easier for us to paddle in than for me to have to swim with you."
Gasping, Polly slid off her perch.